Thanksgiving 2018.

Happy Thanksgiving! We were home for Thanksgiving this year, so we got to see my grandparents (who live in a neighboring town), and spend time fun time with the De Jongs! 

For lunch on Thursday, we went to the big Schut gathering (meaning all my grandpa's siblings and their sides, so a lot of extended aunts, uncles, and cousins). We hadn't gone in a couple years, so I'm glad we were able to go again. It was fun to have people see the girls again, and for some people to meet Lucy and Ellory for the first time. 5 of our 7 grandparents live close to us and it's such a blessing!

Jana found these pilgrim hats from when Elizabeth was little and they were so cute! Ellory wore hers for a long time and Lucy refused to put it on.

Whole family shots are one of my most favorite things.

Nativity playing by the Christmas tree!

We love our Papa and Amma! (Ellory has been sucking her thumb with her finger up like that!)

Thankful for family!

The girls had fun decorating gingerbread houses! Ellory wasn't interested so she was just playing, but Lucy and Norah loved it!

Mommy/daughter trip to DC!

Norah and I took a mommy/daughter trip to visit my good friend Stephanie in DC! It was super fun. It was a lot of travel (we were gone Friday-Sunday), but it was so worth it. Kley stayed home with Lucy and Ellory, and they had a good time too and had some help from Amma and Papa. We didn't feel like it was a good time for all of us to go. We didn't want to pay for another ticket, and it would have been much harder to get around the city with three kids vs. one, etc. So just Norah and I headed out! Norah was so excited for months, really, and talked about going often and seeing the White House and riding a plane. All in all, she was an incredible traveler!

When Kley and I went in 2014, we were able to go on the White House Garden Tour, which was amazing, and this time we even got to go INSIDE and have a tour of the East and West Wings! It was so cool to see such an important part of our nation. We had the West Wing tour Friday night; you have to have a guide for that, vs. the East Wing tours that are self guided. You couldn't take pictures inside of the West Wing, but we got some neat pictures with the seals!

I really love this picture. Norah at the White House!

White House Press Briefing room. Crazy to think about all that has taken place there. 

Saturday we went on the East Wing tour. It was so cool! Norah was a bit over it since we had to wait in line for an hour to even get in, but she handled it very well considering. Here's the movie theatre!

Library.

Vermeil Room.

China Room.

Chandelier in the East Room.

Green Room.

Blue Room.

Red Room.

Washington Monument from the window.

State Dining Room.

Norah's face clearly expressed how she felt about how long that went. 

But how cool to take a picture in front of the White House!

Saturday afternoon we went to this amazing park and the zoo.

Norah loved the carousel. I remarked that I'd never seen one with such a wide variety of animals before. Stephanie thought it was hilarious that out of all the choices she had, she chose the meerkat. Ha.

The baby orangutan was all of our favorites. 

We also went to Milk, which was amazing. Their signature is that they make all of their ice cream with cereal milk (milk that has been soaked in cereal). Isn't that strange? So unique. Stephanie ordered the plain vanilla version, and it was definitely different than regular ice cream, but good. Norah wanted a "chocolate malt" so we ordered this Choco Pretzel Dulce creation and it was fabulous. Definitely one of my favorite ice cream experiences ever.

It's crazy that this was my fourth time there! Stephanie has lived there for six years now. Kley and I went together in 2013 and 2014, and my mom, Norah, and I went in 2016. 

We had a great time! We also just went for a few walks, checked out a cute bookstore and found some DC t-shirts for the girls, and made a few meals at Stephanie's apartment, including delicious homemade pizza and pancakes/bacon. Thanks for being a great host, Stephanie! We had a wonderful time and it was so good to see you. We love you! It was fun to have some one on one time with Norah too!

Halloween 2018.

Happy Halloween! What fun to celebrate with young kids. We had a couple different times to wear our costumes- to Kindermusik, to trick or treat to grandparent's and great grandparent's houses, and to trick or treat downtown. Our town does something really fun where most of the businesses in our "downtown" open up for trick or treating. (We have lived here for almost four years now, but I still have to put "downtown" in quotation marks because it's silly that they would even call it downtown. I think everyone should just call it Central, which is the actual name of the street.) It's excellent for little kids because they start at noon, so we don't have to go late at night in the dark, and we don't have to walk far. We can go a couple blocks and get plenty of candy!

Introducing to you Snow White, Ladybug, and Bumblebee! How cute!

Lucy and Ellory weren't a big fan of the hoods on their costumes.

Also, as per usual, I tried to snap a load of pictures and delete later, so these are the best I got after the mass amount. :)

What a blessing to live so close to one set of grandparents and to 3/4 of the great grandparents. (We are so thankful to have seven still living, and five of the seven live really close to us!) 

Trick-or-treating at the businesses. It was a beautiful day! 

Norah was apparently "too tired to walk" even after being so excited to trick or treat, so she spent most of the time in the stroller.

Meanwhile, Lucy and Ellory walked the entire route! They did amazing! They carried their baskets the whole way and loved putting each piece of candy in them.

Happy Halloween! 

Check out Halloween 2017, Halloween 2016, and Halloween 2015. They change so fast!